Ma.Ko.Aa (ಮರ ಕೋತಿ ಆಟ)

Dream Mode: Five people in mid 30s playing the Monkey Game. Raj will be chasing others on the tree with a voice shouting in the background saying, whoever fall down is killed. If no body falls down within five mins, shots will be fired randomly at the players.

Raj jumps from the tree branch to another branch and kicks one player by the swing. The player falls down and is shot by the shooter. Raj wakes up from the bad dream, wondering what that was.

Raj gets up from the bed with the bad dream. He dresses up and jogs towards the ground for cricket practice. Another cricketer on the ground makes a loose comment at Raj saying, do not waste your energy and save it for next year to come back to cricket after the ban is lifted. Raj gets angry at his teammate and picks a fight with him as well. Coach will scream at Raj saying, one-year ban for hitting the umpire is not enough. Get lost from the ground.

Coach calls up Raj's parents, inform them of his violent behaviour, and tells them that the cricket board for hitting the umpire for one year has banned him. Raj's parents advise his son to control his anger. Raj ignores his parents advice and walks away. Parents gets worried of his behaviour and calls up an astrologer to understand what to do for his son's better future. The Astrologer suggests them to visit the hill temple.

Raj with his family sets out to visit the hill temple to offer pooja for welfare of their son's future. Raj stays outside and asks his parents to proceed.

Raj's mother prays god to keep his son's anger in control. Outside, Raj sits below the tree and sees an old couple crying and asks them,

Raj: Whats the matter?

Old Couple: Our son died here 25 years back while playing on this tree.

Raj laughs at them and asks them to stop crying and move on life. Anyways he is dead long back. Do not waste your time Oldies. 

While coming back home from temple, Raj family sees a new neighbour moving next to their house. Both the families introduce themselves. After understanding that Raj is an x-cricketer, Niraj requests Raj to train his son Sunny on cricket and Raj agrees.

Dream Mode: Five People playing the game. While Raj is chasing three players, one player is chasing Raj to kill him. In the background the same sound appears in base voice saying, the one who falls down will be shot. This time Raj breaks a branch on which one player is standing and the player falls down only to be shot down by the shooter. The moment the shot is fired, Raj gets up from the dream.

Raj asks Sunny to go back today saying he is not well. Raj gives the same excuse for next one week citing the same reason. Niraj visits Raj's house and asks

Niraj: Anything serious?

Raj: No, not at all. Just that I feel my head is heavy from past one week.

Niraj: Did you visit the doc?

Raj: Not that serious. Just that I get weird dreams and I will be be on that weird mode till I forget that dream.

Niraj: Do you wanna share what do you see?

Raj narrates the dreams that he has been getting from past 2 years.

Niraj: Have you ever seen anything in real life of the characters or objects you have seen in your dream?

Raj: No.

Niraj: Can you describe them to me? I am a sketch artist. I can make sketches of the characters and objects you describe.

Raj: I do not recollect the faces. However, I do remember the tree very well.

Niraj: Okay. Describe the tree.

Raj: Big tree with no leaves. The entire tree looks black.

Raj describes of the tree goes on and Niraj sketch hearing Raj. Once completed,

Niraj: Is this the tree you have seen in your dreams?

Raj: yes! However, I have not seen such trees in reality.

Niraj: Do not worry. Nothing will happen. It is just a dream. Move on...

Sunny by mistake sees the sketch of the tree with black colour and no leaves. Thinking what kind of drawing is this, Sunny completes the drawing by putting leaves on the tree sketch and change the tree colour to green. He then likes the finished sketch and hangs it on the wall in his room.

Sunny leaves for summer holidays. Raj and Niraj spend more time over drinks and partying while Sunny is away on vacations.

Raj: Why do you stay alone? Where is your wife?

Niraj: She died of cardiac arrest 2 years back on 14 Nov.

Dream Mode: Game chase with five people begins. This time three people are chasing him where as he is behind one person who is trying to escape from him. Raj jumps on that last person and both of them fall on to the ground. Raj escapes the shot and runs towards the tree. The shooter shoots the second person who has fallen on to the ground.

Raj visits Niraj house next day morning and,

                Raj: What is happening in my life?

                Niraj: What happened?

                Raj: Same dream again this time.

                Niraj: Can you recollect the characters this time? We will sketch the characters.

                Raj: yes, I do except for one face.

Raj narrates the character faces and Niraj sketches the same. Once completed,

                Niraj: Have you seen any of these faces before?

                Raj: No, not anyone so far.

Raj comes home with those three sketches and search net for those people. He identifies that three people and travels out of the city to meet them in person. One by one, he realises that each of them died over the years with cardiac arrest on Nov 14 only. Then he thinks, Niraj wife also died on same date of cardiac arrest and is she the one whose face I am not able to recollect in the dream. He cracks his head over what is the link between his dream and Niraj wife. Nothing clicks. He sets out to meet the last person alive from the characters of his dream, Sonia.

Raj will find Sonia very attractive and feels that he should marry her. Raj uses his cricket celebrity status to impress Sonia's parents and convinces them to get him married to Sonia.  Raj and Sonia both get married in the hill temple.

One evening Niraj, while surfing the Facebook, finds that Raj has uploaded his wedding photos on the Facebook. Niraj sees all the pics and goes to sleep. In the sleep, he suddenly realizes seeing one pic on the Facebook very familiar to him. Niraj opens the Facebook and checks the pic with tree in which Sonia is standing and finds exact same tree sketch hanging on the wall of his son's room. Niraj visits that temple alone by himself. He searches for the tree near the temple and unsuccessfully returns back to his house with no luck.

Next day, when Raj is away with Sunny for Cricket training, visits his house and sees Sonia there and asks,

Niraj: Is Raj away?

Sonia: Yes. He has gone out.

Niraj: Is it okay if I ask you a question?

Sonia: No problem. Go ahead and ask?

Niraj: Do you also get any weird dreams at night?

Sonia: Why you asking me this question?

Niraj: Coz your husband gets weird dreams and he has discussed with me           couple of times.

Sonia: Oh. I do get dreams but they are not weird. They are sweet. Those dreams make me happy. I get a dream of a guy pampering me and trying to impress me.

Niraj will not understand what is happening.

After 3 months, Sonia gets pregnant and on Nov 13, Sonia gets admitted to hospital for delivery on next day. That night, Doctors tells Raj that his wife will be on medication and she needs complete rest for the delivery tomorrow. Raj becomes very happy hearing the news thinking, Sonia will go to sleep and he will stay awake.

Suddenly, Sonia starts to have labour pain and she is shifted to operation theatre. Doctors come over to on emergency basis and inform Raj that Sonia will have to undergo delivery right away. They also inform him that he can come inside the operation theatre to see the delivery if interested.

Raj goes inside the operation theatre and watches Sonia in severe pain. Seeing that pain, Raj faints on the ground and falls in the operation theater. Nurses take him to a ward and makes him rest.

Dream Mode: All the people who have died in real life are seen chasing Raj on the tree to push him to death. Raj tries all possible means to escape but he fails to remain on the tree. Ravaan is pushed down and is shot by the shooter. Ravaan gets the shock of his life when he realizes that the shooter is the neighbour Niraj.

He opens his eyes to see Niraj sitting next to him in the hospital bed. Niraj narrates him a story,

FLASHBACK CHAPTER:  A family start their journey to visit a hill temple. The Hill temple will be around 200 kms away from the city. The temple would be crowded on that day, as many families had visited the temple coz of the holiday.

While the pooja is going on, Son asks the parents that he will play outside until the pooja is completed. He sees a bunch of kids of playing on the big banyan tree with nearly five of them playing Mara Kothi Aata (Monkey Game). There would be a total of three boys and two girls. He runs towards the tree and asks the kids out there if he can join the game.

The kids playing there agree to him on one condition saying that he should be the monkey and catch others while they all escape. He readily agrees and start playing the game.

Being good at that game, he slowly keeps making everyone out leaving out one girl until the end for two consecutive games. Everyone wonders as to why is he not making her out but running behind others. They realise that he is trying to impress that girl. As this continues in the third game, all the others kids get angry and decide to push him off the tree in the next game. Anyways each of them do not know each other. We will go back to our villages.

By then the mother of the guy comes out and shouts saying Pooja is done, come over for the Aarthi. The guy says, last game Amma and he goes for playing one final game.

While the game starts, even though the girl is the first one who could easily get out, he skips her and goes towards another guy whom he touches and makes him out. Others wait and watch him as to who can push him off the tree when he nears them. One guy stands at one far end the tree and wait for him to come over there. When the guy comes, he skids on the tree and kicks on the guy leg coz of which the guy fall down and die on the spot.

Coming back from the flashback,

Niraj: Do you know what did the guy said while dyeing?

Raj: No?

Niraj: I will come back to earth by killing the person who has killed me.

Raj: Starts laughing.... I got up from the dream and you are my neighbour. Don’t you see that I have beaten the death? In addition, do u know why I married Sonia?

Niraj: Why?

Raj: I searched on the net about the sketches of characters you had made and found that they were dead. Sonia was the only one alive and decided to marry her. I wanted to skip the death letting her sleep and myself stay awake. Ha haaaaaa

Niraj: Just open your eyes and see if you are alive now?

Raj: Who are you? What is happening?

Niraj Twin: Niraj is my twin brother and I died on his lap on that day. Anyways, time me to get back to earth. Sonia was the girl whom I liked while playing the game and I never made her out. In addition, you married her. Huh! Anyways, time me to come back in her life as her son. Good Bye!

Raj screams Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Niraj visits Sonia and tells her that Raj is dead. She smiles and tells him. I know and your twin brother had told me that he would come out as my son in my dreams for all these years...

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